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Pretoria - "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius lied
about fetching a fan from his balcony before killing his girlfriend, the
prosecutor in his murder trial said on Thursday.

In his second day under cross-examination, Pistorius told
the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria he did not deliberately fire the shots
that blasted through a locked bathroom door and hit Reeva Steenkamp in the hip,
arm and head.

"Do I remember firing four shots at the door? No, I
don't... I remember pulling the trigger and rounds going into the door,"
Pistorius said.

"I didn't mean to pull the trigger so in that sense
it was an accident," Pistorius replied, after earlier also protesting his
innocence on two lesser charges relating to him discharging guns in public.

Pistorius notably claimed that he never touched the
trigger of a friend's Glock pistol that went off in his hand in a packed
restaurant in January 2013, a few weeks before he killed Steenkamp in the early
hours of Valentine's Day.

"I know my finger wasn't on the trigger,"
Pistorius said.

But the prosecutor countered that it was an indisputable
fact that it was impossible to set off that particular make of firearm without
pressure on the trigger and Pistorius was therefore trying to convince the
court of a "miracle".

"I'm putting it to you that you are lying," Nel
said.

This became a refrain as he relentlessly sought to
dismantle Pistorius's defence, and turned to the Paralympian's claim that on 14
February he was busy moving an electronic fan when he heard a suspicious noise
that prompted him to fetch his firearm and fire at the door in panic.

According to Pistorius, he had brought the fans into the
bedroom, closed the sliding doors leading onto his balcony and drawn the
curtains.

He has told the court that once he realised with dread
that it may have been Steenkamp he shot, and not an intruder, he ran onto the
balcony and shouted for help three times.

Fan blocking door

Nel asked Pistorius to look at a police photograph of his
bedroom taken in the aftermath of the shooting, showing a tripod fan in front
of the open sliding doors, and to spot the problem it presented.

After some pause, Pistorius said: "The fan couldn't
possibly have been there because it's in the way of the doors opening."

Nel replied: "Indeed, indeed. I agree. Because your
version is a lie. You never closed the curtains in the first place... That door
was open when you and the deceased got into an argument."

At this, Pistorius's defence lawyer Barry Roux objected,
saying the State had no evidence of an argument but Nel said he would produce
circumstantial evidence to prove it.

The defence has made a case that the police tampered with
evidence, and Pistorius returned to the argument in his testimony on Thursday,
telling Nel investigators had moved several objects in his Pretoria home.

Nel asked: "Let's just sum this up. A policeman
moved two fans, put the duvet on the floor and opened the curtains wider than
it should be?"

The prosecutor also suggested he would prove that
Pistorius was lying about connecting the two fans to an extension lead next to
his bed, partly because their cables were not long enough.

Pistorius said it was possible if the extension cord were
pulled deeper into the room.

Nel stated emphatically that it had not - possibly
linking to his statement to Pistorius on Wednesday that one of the two plug
openings had already been taken up by the charger for his hair clippers, which
was visible next to his bed on photographs.

"You are trying but it is not working. Your version
is so improbable that nobody would ever reasonably think it is true."

‘Self-centred and
abusive’

Earlier, he had called into question Pistorius's
character.

Nel said the athlete who was seen as role model around
the world had been self-centred and abusive towards Steenkamp.

He read out transcripts of text message that spoke of
turmoil in the relationship and asked why Pistorius responded with
recriminations when Steenkamp complained that his criticism had left her
feeling hurt and humiliated.

"I'm the girl who fell in love with you and wanted
to tell you this weekend," Nel quoted Steenkamp as writing, and asked
Pistorius why he did not reply to that sentiment.

"Wasn't that a significant event in your
relationship? Why didn't you deal with that? You didn't care.

"You blamed her. Because it's all about Mr
Pistorius. That's what your relationship was about."

Nel also accused Pistorius of subjecting the Steenkamp
family to a public spectacle by starting his testimony with a tearful apology
from the stand, but stopping short of saying he was sorry for shooting dead the
blonde model.

"The words 'I'm sorry I killed your daughter' were
never in your apology... You didn't think how they would feel sitting in a
public court."

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